16. Side Trip

Damn.

Monarch paced around the study of one of the homes listed under his birth name. Insofar as it was possible, he tried not to conduct any of his other business from here. He'd gone to great lengths to keep that part of his life very separate from his birth identity, and it wouldn't do to muck it up by conducting that business from here, but the nature of the Dark Games he was trying to call over the past week necessitated him being ready at a moment's notice, and that meant a great deal of it was bleeding over into times and places where he was wearing his public persona.

And now this. It had to be taken care of, and quickly, which would mean another trip to Luxor a little earlier than he'd planned. And in all likelihood, it meant even further enmeshment between his public and private lives. The place where he conducted most of his Luxor business wouldn't be enough for what he had in mind, which meant the mercenaries would probably have to be brought to his other home, thus tearing down the careful wall he'd constructed between his two lives.

He stopped at his desk long enough to slam his hands down on it. Damn Ishizu Ishtar and her infernal interference! No wonder he wasn't making as much headway as he ought to with Valentine. He should've been able to bring her into a full-fledged Dark Game by now, but no. That contemptible Egyptian cow had to hold things together in the Shadow Realm with her damnable nightly vigils. He knew he should have done something sooner to stop her. Well, this was the last one, rest assured. His servant would take care of that, and he'd take care of the problem with Valentine, too, and then it would be a clear path to the others. To the Vessel himself.

He took a deep breath, calming himself. It really wasn't worth getting worked up over. A quick trip to Luxor—his servant would do most of the work, and the mercenaries would do the clean-up. No, the vigils to sustain the Nameless Pharaoh and his successor would not be a hindrance in the long run. It was the other thing, this "healing rift" that was of greater concern. Could someone who came from a Ba as powerful as Mahad's really have managed to reconnect with its other half? Could it be Mahad himself? Ishizu had only used him as an example, Monarch realized, but certainly to keep the shadows at bay this long, to keep Valentine and the others who would follow from being pulled completely into a Dark Game, the rift that was healing would have to be from someone as powerful as Mahad. His apprentice, Mana, perhaps? Monarch shook his head. No, even she didn't seem powerful enough, and he was fairly certain she hadn't sealed her Ka into the Dark Magician Girl the way Mahad had into Dark Magician.

Then who? And why now? And what could he do to find this person so he could remove them from the scene he had so carefully constructed?

Monarch sat down at his desk. No, he had to take matters one at a time. He would find this connected person in due time, but first he had to take care of the known quantity. First, the Ishtars. If the gods were on his side—and how could they not be?—then that would be enough to access the shadows he needed. It would be enough to bring down Valentine.

The container terminals section of the Port of Los Angeles docks in San Pedro Bay was a steady hum of activity as workers unloaded huge bulk containers off of cargo ships and onto rail cars for transport inland. There were dozens of berths employing a workforce of hundreds, but with a few flips of her hair and bats of her eyelashes, Mai soon had the information she needed. Now she and Joey found themselves at Berth 232 on the east bank of the Main Channel. They were directed towards the foreman's office situated at the edge of the rail hub, where they found a tall burly man with bushy blond hair and long sideburns seated behind the desk looking over a schedule with a lean but muscular black man bending over his shoulder. Mai leaned in the doorway, Joey behind her, until the blond noticed her. His eyes widened in recognition, but he finished his conversation and waited for the other man to leave, then tilted back in his chair and propped his boots up on his desk, folding his arms behind his head.

"Well, well, if it isn't Mai Valentine." His voice was low and gravelly. "And, of course, Joey Wheeler two steps behind."

"Hello, Rafael." Mai flashed him a smile, elbowing Joey to keep him from taking Rafael's bait. "It's been a while." She sauntered into the office and sat down on top of his desk, pushing his legs aside to make room for herself. Joey took the hint and remained silent in the doorway behind her, his arms folded.

Rafael shook his head, grinning. "A few months anyway. But let me guess, you didn't come all the way down the coast just to chat. Why don't you cut to the chase?"

"Rafael." Mai crossed her legs, an exaggerated pout on her lips. "You're no fun at all. Don't you even wanna hear who I ran into in London at the British Open last week?" She leaned forward conspiratorially. "I'll give you a hint. It was an old friend of ours."

"We don't have any mutual friends. Being duped by the same con man doesn't qualify us as friends."

"Good point. But still, after all this time, don't you think it's interesting that Valon suddenly reappeared on the dueling circuit?"

There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes that she might've missed if she'd blinked at the wrong moment, then the affected indifference was back. "Why should I care?"

"Aren't you curious? He disappeared after the whole mess with Dartz and then just pops up at a tournament, and right when he does, weird things start happening."

"What weird things?"

"You tell me."

Rafael rolled his eyes and dropped his feet to the floor, sitting up straight. "Listen, Valentine, I've already told Yugi everything I know about Paradias. There were hundreds of companies involved to varying degrees, and any one of Dartz's partners could've gotten his hands on Orichalcos stones. I made an agreement with Yugi to pass any information onto your little gang that I come across, so if I knew anything more, I would've already told him. I'm not interested in seeing a repeat of four years ago any more than you are."

"I'm not asking for names, Rafael. I wanna know about the Orichalcos itself. What do you know about it?"

He frowned thoughtfully. "The Seal?"

"No, the stones."

He let out an impatient huff of air. "I told Yugi everything I knew about that, too. Dartz told us the stones showed us the truth, which hearts were pure, and which were evil."

"Oh, it shows the evil hearts all right," Joey said, and Rafael looked up at him as if only just the remembering he was there.

Mai ignored Joey. "I already know the promotional campaign. I wanna know what it really does. I wanna know—" She paused, glancing over her shoulder at Joey who gave her a slight nod of support. She turned back to Rafael. "I wanna know how Dartz did it. How did he use my nightmares against me?"

This time the surprise in Rafael's eyes registered long enough she couldn't have missed it. "Your nightmares?"

"He had a hook for each of us. Yours was the death of your family. Mine was my nightmares from Battle City. Being trapped and alone. Dartz somehow tapped into that, I know he did. I was fine when I left Domino, and then a couple months later, I wasn't fine. I wanna know how he did it."

Rafael regarded her a moment, his gray-blue eyes studying her. "I think you give me too much credit, Valentine. I was just his lackey. He didn't give me detailed information."

"You were his right-hand man."

"He wanted me to believe I was, but I wasn't. He kept all the really important information to himself. I don't know how he went after you, I only know why—to get to you." His eyes flicked beyond her to Joey. "And then to use you to get to the Pharaoh."

"We know all that," Joey said. "But how did he know what buttons to push?"

"By paying attention?" Rafael shrugged. "The second Kaiba announced the tournament, he had Valon on a plane to Domino."

Mai's jaw dropped and behind her Joey cried out in surprise. "Say what?"

Rafael gave them a dubious look. "It can't come as a surprise to you that he was watching Battle City very closely, if for no other reason than the Egyptian god cards and the Pharaoh were all together in one place."

"That's not the part that's surprising—it's that it was Valon. That son of a bitch." Mai hissed out an angry breath. "I believed him. He said he didn't know anything about the Orichalcos stones and the nightmares, and I believed him."

"Whoa, back up a step." Rafael held his hands up. "I didn't say Valon knew anything about anything. He was even lower in the pecking order than I was. Hell, he was barely on the fringe until Battle City when he got the hots for you and Dartz decided that would be a good hook to reel you in. Whatever Dartz's plans for Battle City were, Valon's only role was to let him know what was going on there."

Mai was not appeased. "Still, he might've mentioned he was there."

"Well, he sure as hell wasn't there for the finals." Joey came forward to join them at the desk. "That was on Kaiba's airship and was just the eight finalists, Kaiba's staff, and our guests. That's where all the action really happened. Well, not totally. There was that mess at the docks with me and Yugi. But what happened to Mai, that was all in the finals. Valon wasn't there, so he couldn't have reported back to Dartz about it."

Rafael shook his head. "No, but there were public reports."

"Of the results, not of all the other crap that was going on," Joey said. "Kaiba was very good at keeping that stuff outta the press. He didn't want people thinking Duel Disks were dangerous. No one knew what really happened in the finals but the eight finalists, Mokuba, Téa, Tristan, Duke, Serenity, and Kaiba's flunkies. Yet, somehow Dartz knew enough to find a way to go after Mai in the same way Marik did and I wanna know how."

"I already told you, I don't know anything about that. All I know is he was really pleased with how Battle City turned out, and when Valon came back all hot to trot over Miss Mini-skirt here, Dartz was more than happy to have him chase her around a bunch of tournaments to reel her in."

Mai leaned forward toward Rafael. No longer bothering to flirt with him, she just glared coldly. "And how exactly was he supposed to 'reel me in'?"

"Dartz told Valon that you wanted true power, but that you didn't know it yet, that you were still expecting your friends to come and rescue you. He said if Valon waited long enough, he'd know when you'd be ready for the power of the Orichalcos."

Mai straightened, growling in frustration. "None of this is new, Rafael! How did Dartz know? When Battle City ended, I was in a good place, but then all of a sudden I wasn't, and then I started having nightmares. I know Dartz had something to do with it because Evan Haines used an Orichalcos stone to do the same thing last May, but you're telling me the only thing he told Valon to do was watch me?"

Rafael stroked his chin thoughtfully. "You say this Haines guy used the Orichalcos stone to trigger your nightmares, huh? Well, Valon did have a stone in his ring. He was supposed to follow you around until he thought the time was right to talk to you, but I don't know how close he followed you."

Joey put his hand on her shoulder. "That's a good point, Mai. Do you remember ever bumping into him before the time he actually approached you?"

She thought about it a minute and then shrugged. "I don't know. Lots of crowded tournaments. Who knows who was around me in the crowd?"

"But the nightmares definitely started after you did a few tournaments, right?"

"Mm-hm." Her eyes flicked down and she gave an embarrassed shrug. "But I wasn't in a great place before that, feeling like I couldn't measure up even when I kept winning."

"Did you ever stop to think your hang-ups might not be all Dartz's fault?" Rafael asked, leaning back and propping his feet up on his desk once more.

Mai glared at him. "I know that! And it's not like you have a lot of room to talk, Robinson Crusoe."

"But the nightmares," Joey said, squeezing her shoulder and steering the conversation back on course, "those definitely started after you'd been at a few competitions. So Valon coulda triggered 'em with his stone. Maybe without even knowing it."

Mai nodded. "Then we should be talking to Valon."

"You can try, if you know where to find him." Rafael shrugged. "But I'm telling you, he doesn't know any more about how Dartz worked than I do. Dartz is gone. There's no way to know what was going on in his warped little brain. Sorry you wasted a trip to LA."

Mai swiveled away from him and got up off his desk. Swallowing her frustration, she pasted on a smile. "Well, I wouldn't call it a total wasted trip. There's always Rodeo Drive."

Behind her, Joey groaned. "I knew it was too much to hope for that I'd get out of shopping."